Senior Barcelona player ready to take a large pay cut after Laporta meeting

It is no top secret that Barcelona are in all sorts of problems financially. The Blaugrana have been hard at work all summer to clear out the deadwood from the squad and make significant cuts to their bloated wage bill.

While offloading players, the Catalan giants have also made requests to their senior players to consider taking pay cuts in order to help balance the books.

Indeed, last month it was reported that president Joan Laporta was going to ask veteran stars Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba to agree to a 40% slash on their current salaries, with the club desperate to register new players and incorporate Lionel Messi’s new contract.

The recent news of CVC investing money into La Liga, which eases Barcelona’s situation to a great extent, is a welcome one. Nonetheless, one of the aforementioned three players – Gerard Pique – is willing to agree to the pay cut, reports La Vanguardia.

Barcelona’s third captain is said to have had a meeting with club president Laporta during which he showed a great willingness to forego a large chunk of his salary in order to ease the Catalans’ troubles and help them secure new contracts for players.

The report goes on to add that the 34-year-old defender’s camp has claimed that he will reduce a ‘large part’ of his salary as he is aware that doing so would help Barcelona bring in more players.

“Gerard wants Barça to be a competitive team. He knows that if the club releases a salary mass, he will be able to make more signings and that will improve the project,” a member of his camp said.

Barcelona are now hoping that Pique’s decision will convince fellow senior stars Busquets and Alba to follow suit and agree to pay cuts. The latter has been reluctant to do so, and it will be interesting to see if his fellow defender’s actions change his mind.